Over The Hills
by Pyjamas
Summary: Kai quite literally bumps into Ray after four years of no contact. When he finds out that Ray's got himself stuck in a rut, he makes it his business to get him out. [Kai x Ray]
1. Foreign

**Title: **Over The Hills  
**Chapter title: **Foreign  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Beyblade.  
**Notes: **I wrote the first two chapters of this in 2004 and never finished it. I found it just now and thought, 'I know, I'll post and finish it!'. That's probably what I wrote it for in the first place, after all. And I still love this pairing, even if I haven't seen Beyblade for quite some time.

* * *

Kai Hiwatari stepped off the train with his bag slung over one shoulder and focused on getting out of the station. The crowds of additional people who had got off the train were pissing him off to say the least, what with their rudeness and their inconsideration for everybody else. After making his way as quickly as possible through the huge station, he stepped outside and squinted at the bright sunlight. The sign in front of him said London Victoria. Looking around, he smirked to himself. The ridiculous place was just as he remembered it. Busy, noisy and malodorous. After an hour on a train, most people would appreciate fresh air and being outside again. Not Kai. He just wanted to be in a nice, air-conditioned hotel as soon as possible. Putting on his trademark scowl, he made his way out of the station and headed off into London.

Ray Kon trudged wearily along the sidewalk, rubbing at his eyes. It had been hard to get much sleep recently, what with everything that had been going on. He winced as he caught his toe on a bit of the pavement that was sticking up, and grabbed a nearby phone box to get his balance. Everything still hurt like hell, and he hated it. Letting out a small, half-hearted chuckle, he wondered what Kai would say if he ever saw him like this. The word 'weak' ran though his mind, and he sighed. It had been four years, yet Ray was still thinking about Kai as if he'd never gone. It was pathetic, really. Taking a deep breath, he forced his feet to move again and continued trailing through the hectic streets.

"What the hell's going on here, then?" Kai brushed his hair out of his eyes and read over the map again. And again. Then looked up at road he was currently standing in. The two were completely different…which meant he either had the wrong map, or he was in the wrong street. Kai groaned and opted for the latter, seeing as he hadn't been here in four or five years. Something like that. In truth, he couldn't remember how long ago he'd left or why, but just thinking about it was giving him a migraine. That fact that he was now practically lost probably wasn't helping matters much.

Eyeing the busy street again, Kai pondered how he was going to find his hotel. Asking for directions was out of the question; it would make him look utterly stupid and looking stupid was not something that Kai would do if he could avoid it. He could look around for a tourist information centre or something…but is he was going to do that, he might as well just wander around looking for the hotel. Which would also make him look a bit stupid if the same person saw him more than once. This whole 'moving around' business was proving to be harder than he originally thought. Ah, well. His best bet was probably trying to find a tourist information centre amongst the shops. No way in hell was he going to try and get information out of any of the bizarre cannabis addicts that were roaming around here and polluting the streets. With this decision in mind, Kai strode off into the seething mass of people ahead of him, trying to make some sort of sense out of his geographically challenged map.

Yet another impatient foreigner shoved his way past Ray, almost knocking him off his feet. Ray glared at the retreating figure's back before carrying on walking with renewed energy. God, he hated foreigners. Years of teachers trying to teach him French at school, and he still didn't know a goddamn word of it. Except perhaps 'bonjour'. With his head down, staring fiercely at his feet, he power-walked right through a huge mob of people and straight into somebody.

Said 'somebody' lifted his scarlet eyes from his map and raised an eyebrow bemusedly. The hooded person who'd just slammed into him was now curled up in a ball on the floor in front of him, clutching their side and hissing with pain. Kai blinked. Were all people in London so ignorant as to not notice someone in front of them? He briefly wondered if the figure was alright, and considered at least helping them up. But he couldn't do that. It'd be too nice, and besides, he'd been paying attention to where he was walking; it was the other boy's fault for rushing through a place like London. Muttering a harsh 'Watch where you're going next time,' Kai stepped over the guy, who had visibly tensed and stopped wincing.

"…Kai?"

The tone had Kai frozen to the spot, and his eyes went wide. He knew that voice. He knew that voice better than anyone's. He turned his head slowly, as though it might not be real if he looked too quickly. His stunned, blood red stare locked with a familiar, equally stunned, hopeful amber gaze, and Kai knew that this was indeed happening. He crept closer to his old friend and knelt down in front of him, lifting his hand to take off the boy's hood so he could see him properly.

"Ray…"

Ray sat there in shock. It was really Kai. He'd returned. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. Ray had missed him beyond belief, and had never been expecting him to come back. Ray had needed Kai so much in the last few years, and Kai hadn't been there because he had left. But he was here now, and to Ray, in that moment, it was all that mattered. Acting on impulse, Ray threw his arms around Kai's neck and started crying uncontrollably into his shoulder.

"I missed you so much…"

Kai didn't quite know what to make of the situation. Kneeling in the middle of London, surrounded by tourists and the like, with someone he hadn't seen or heard from in years attached to him and crying all over the place. If it had been anyone else, Kai would have detached them from him, hit them and proceeded to tell them how stupid they were being. But this was Ray, he closest thing he used to have to a friend. He would never be able to treat him like that, even if he wanted to. Awkwardly, he wrapped his arms around Ray, raising an eyebrow as the smaller boy winced. It shouldn't have hurt. Some catching up was definitely in order.


	2. Questions

**Chapter title:** Questions  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Beyblade.  
**Notes: **I figured that, since this bit had already been written, I'd post it before I went to school today. Because I'm rather bored, and I've got a lovely four hours of English literature and Spanish to look forward to. I've only sort of scanned this for mistakes and stuff, so if there's any I've missed I apologise.

* * *

Ray stared down at his milkshake, still not quite believing the situation he was in. When he woke up that morning, he would never have even considered the possibility of getting a glance at Kai, let alone quite literally bumping into him in the street. And now here they were, sitting in some coffee shop. To make matters even more surreal for poor Ray, Kai was even paying for his milkshake.

This made no sense to him whatsoever. What was Kai doing back in London after all these years? Surely he was doing fine in…that place that he'd gone? Ray realised with a start that not only did he not know why Kai had come back; he also had absolutely no idea where he'd gone in the first place. Or why.

Ray tightened his grip on his glass. He didn't dare look up in case Kai wasn't there and it was all just another nightmare after all. Instead he fixed his eyes on his chocolate drink and didn't move except to breathe or to cross and uncross his feet every now and then under his chair. He squeezed his eyes shut. He was being silly, he knew it. It was only Kai, not some random, half-crazed, perverted stranger. It was only Kai. He really hoped that when he decided to look up, Kai would still be there. He remembered that last random, half-crazed, perverted stranger he met, and he remembered where it had got him. He shuddered involuntarily, and reminded himself again that it was only Kai.

Kai, on the other hand, sipped at his coffee (without coffee granules, cream, sugar or milk) quietly, staring at the boy he used to know. He didn't understand the way Ray was acting. Well, he never used to either, but this was different. It was like Ray was a different person. He would never have cried in front of anyone so easily four years ago. Perhaps something had happened? Kai's head tilted slightly to the side as he continued to stare, and wondered what could possibly have provoked such a huge change in his old friend.

Then something caught his attention, and now that he'd noticed it, it was beginning to bother him. It was the middle of summer. Mother Nature was being a pain in the backside and not sending even the slightest breezes; Kai had even spotted some people pouring bottles of water over themselves as they walked past the coffee shop in a vain effort to cool themselves down. If Kai had, hypothetically of course, asked one of them if it was working, they would have replied that yes, it was helping temporarily. Temporarily meaning for about 5 seconds, by which point they would need another bottle. The coffee shop itself was supposed to have air conditioning; if it did, Kai honestly hadn't noticed it at all when he had first entered. Inconveniently broken, he guessed. He could have probably fried an egg on their table.

So why on _earth_ was Ray wearing a hoodie?

"Um…Kai?"

Their eyes met, and Kai saw something he'd never seen in Ray before. Fear. Ray was scared? Of him? Ray took the fact that Kai had looked at him as encouragement to continue.

"Can I ask you something?"

Kai set his mug down, breaking the silence of his pause. Their eye contact was ended only for a few seconds while he watched what he was doing, and then he returned to his staring and rested his cheek in his hand. "Go ahead."

"I…um…" This time it was Ray to look away, suddenly finding the glass in his hands far more interesting. Kai's gaze didn't falter. It was obvious that Ray was having great difficulty in getting these words out, whatever he wanted to say. There was silence for a while longer as Ray struggled to get his wording right. "Wh-"

He was interrupted by a beeping sound. Kai shut his eyes and clenched the hand that his cheek had been resting in previously into a fist, his mouth twisting into an expression of annoyance and impatience. A few more beeps were heard and Kai moved to pull a mobile phone from his pocket, now looking completely and utterly pissed off. He didn't even bother to look at the caller ID.

"What?"

Ray couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but from the look on Kai's face he didn't think it was of much importance. Well, at least to Kai it didn't seem to be.

"What of it?"

Kai's voice was getting angrier by the second. Ray sort of felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of the line; he knew that, had they been in this situation four years ago with Kai in the same angry mood, the poor person he was on the phone to would soon have felt a painful equivalent to Kai's annoyed yelling. Ray looked back down at the table, suddenly feeling a lot more out of place than usual. He didn't know Kai anymore. Not that he'd known him very well before, but at least he had been aware of little things like the way Kai would smack someone in the head if they pissed him off at the wrong time. He had absolutely no idea whether Kai would have the same reactions now.

"No, as a matter of fact, you could not have picked a worse time. Don't call me again."

And on that note, Kai hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. He could honestly not believe the awful timing some people had. "Well?"

Ray looked back up at Kai, a hint of sadness in his eyes. "What?"

"You were going to ask me something."

Ray shut his eyes and shook his head quickly, turning his attention back to his milkshake. "It doesn't matter."

Kai sighed inaudibly and held his head in his hands. Something wasn't right here. Four years or not, Ray had changed for the worse. Something must have happened while he had been away, and he decided to make it his business to find out what it was. Hell, he was even prepared to contact Tyson if it meant getting the answers he was looking for.

Ray averted his eyes from the table to the floor, wishing he wasn't such a plank. He couldn't seem to do anything right. And now Kai was going to go away again because he was being such an idiot. He didn't want Kai to go away. He could really use Kai's help right now, or at least Kai's support. Actually, he figured, just the knowledge that Kai was there would be enough. He was beginning to get fed up of sleeping outside whenever he messed something up, and maybe Kai would let him stay with him on those nights, wherever he was staying.

Nah. Ray perished the thought. Kai was probably just back on some business thing, and Ray would just get in the way. Or he might have been staying with a girlfriend or something, however silly that idea would have sounded four years ago. As far as Ray could see, you'd have to be blind to deny the fact that Kai was incredibly attractive. It was true; his hair had grown slightly longer, he was still the taller of the two, and even though the blue triangles that used to be on his face had gone, his features didn't appear any softer, although he certainly looked older. The white t-shirt he was wearing fit him perfectly, and showed off his well-built figure. A tiny blush crept over Ray's cheeks as he realised that Kai made him look like a weak, skinny idiot, and he started chewing on the sleeve of his hoodie. It was what he did when he was nervous, and the bottoms of his sleeves were considerably faded from where he chewed them so much.

All of a sudden Kai stood up, and dumped some money on the table. He had had enough of this. Maybe Ray wasn't going to say anything because there were other people around? Or he wouldn't blame him if it were because of the time they'd spent apart. Whatever the reason, and whatever had happened to him, Kai was going to find out. He wasn't going to let Ray get away from him until he had some answers. When Ray looked up at him, his amber eyes widened and confused, Kai couldn't help but wonder why he was so concerned about Ray's well being all of a sudden. He wouldn't have been before; he would have just let Ray get on with it and sort himself out. Even if he would have kept an eye on him, just in case.

Ray refused to take his eyes off Kai. If Kai was going to leave him here, then he was going to make the most of the last seconds he had with him. Their eyes met briefly before Kai looked away.

"Come on Ray. Get up."

Ray furrowed his eyebrows. Why was he getting up too? Kai may have been leaving, but Ray wanted to stay away from the house he was supposed to live in for as long as possible. "What do you mean?"

"You're coming with me. I have some things I want to ask you that don't belong in a crowded London coffee shop."

Still rather confused, Ray hesitantly rose from his chair. What could Kai possibly want to ask him? If anyone was going to be asking questions, it should have been him. He wanted to know what had provoked Kai to leave all those years ago, or what had been going on with his life to cause him to be concerned about people. There was so much he could ask, and four years ago, that was the way it would have been. Although, he wouldn't have been given any straight answers. Kai would not have asked a single thing, yet here they were now, and Kai was pretty much forcing him to listen to the questions he was going to ask, not that he wouldn't listen anyway. It was just a little out of the ordinary from where Ray was standing. But then, what was ordinary? As of a few hours ago, Ray no longer had any idea. All he did was walk slowly towards the door, which Kai was holding open for him. And when he looked up at Kai's face, he was met with one of the most intense stares he had seen for four years, and was asked one preliminary question.

"Where's the Victoria Palace Hotel?"


	3. Interrogation

**Chapter title: **Interrogation  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Beyblade.  
**Notes:** Good lord, this is my third update today. I'm on such a roll; using my day off from exams very well, I think. I never liked revising anyway. This chapter was only half written already, I had to write the second half just now. So if the style changed in the middle, that's why. Uh…I think that's it. Enjoy.

* * *

The journey had been relatively uneventful. Ray had led Kai through the crowds to the hotel, looking behind him every now and then just to make sure Kai was still following. Once they arrived, Kai had a bit of an episode with his reservation (the attendant tried to argue that there was no reservation, resulting in a colourful exchange of words between the two until the reservation suspiciously reappeared) while Ray stood feeling awkward. They had then made their way to the hotel room, and once they were both inside Kai dumped his rucksack on the floor and closed the door.

Ray, noticing that Kai wasn't making any attempt to move away from the door, looked around at the room. It was quite basic; Kai must not have been planning to stay for very long. It had a bed, a bedside table, some drawers and a window, out of which Ray could see London, and it had a little bathroom just inside the door. The room also had a horrible green motif. After glancing back at Kai, who still hadn't moved, Ray sat on the edge of the bed. He was understandably nervous. Was it really necessary to lock the door? Was what Kai wanted to ask him so terrible or embarrassing that he might make a run for it? Or perhaps Kai wasn't going to ask him anything at all, but was instead going to beat him up, or even rape him? Ray fidgeted. He hated the things he came up with when he had time to just think.

Kai, on the other hand, couldn't seem to bring himself to turn around and interrogate his old companion. Leaning his head on the door, he began to mentally scold himself in an effort to face Ray. 'Come on Kai, you bastard. This shouldn't be this difficult. Ray used to be your only friend. You've brought him here; now at least have the decency to tell him why.' With this in mind, Kai turned and saw Ray sitting on the bed, hands in his lap, feet together, big eyes looking up at him with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. He took a deep breath, and went to sit next to Ray on the bed; he may have looked similar to the Ray from four years ago, but that was definitely not the boy he used to know. Kai scooted back on the bed to lean against the headboard and stretch his legs out. He might as well get comfortable.

"Well, Ray…I have several things I want to ask you. You might not want to answer some of them, but I would appreciate it if you did. However, before I ask you anything potentially important, first things first. Why are you wearing a hoodie? It's the middle of summer."

Ray was a little taken aback by this question, to say the least. Of all the things Kai could've asked, he had to pick that, and now Ray had two options: tell the truth, or lie. Lying was by far the more preferable option, but his skills at improvising weren't exactly the best in the world. Besides which, however convincing his lie might be, Kai would see right through it. Tyson had always tried to lie to him in the old days, and not once had Kai believed him. So that left Ray with telling the truth, which he really didn't want to do. It'd lead to far more questions that he would rather not have to deal with.

He decided to lie. "I was cold."

Ray mentally slapped himself before he'd even finished speaking. There was no way in hell that Kai would fall for that.

"Alright."

His eyebrows lowered while his eyes widened. That, he did not expect at all.

"Question two – why are you _really_ wearing a hoodie?"

Kai didn't miss the sad look that crossed Ray's face while he said that. He eyed him suspiciously; how had Ray expected him to believe such a blatantly obvious lie? Maybe he hadn't expected him to believe it, but wanted to avoid telling Kai the real reason? Either way, it was something that clearly had more to it than Kai had originally suspected, and now he wasn't going to let Ray go anywhere without telling him the truth.

Hunching over, Ray began to chew his sleeve again. Now there wasn't the option of lying, and the only option left was telling the truth. Would it really be so bad if he told him? It wasn't likely that Kai was going to be sticking around for very long anyway, so maybe he could get away with telling him the better half of the truth and leaving it at that. That way, Kai wasn't likely to interfere and nothing would be able to get back to anybody else he knew. He decided it was worth a shot, and reluctantly rolled his sleeves.

To say that Kai was shocked at what he saw would have been an understatement. He stared at the damage done to Ray's arms and wondered how on earth he'd managed to do it all. There were a lot of cuts; some tidy and neat, others serrated and seemingly done haphazardly. The bruises were all shapes, sizes and colours. Most were prominent and a grubby purple colour, but a few were the yellowy-green colour that bruises went when they were nearly gone. Many of the marks and scars on his arms were also old and fading. Kai even distinguished a couple of burns from the rest of the flaws.

"Ray…what have you done?"

Looking into his eyes, Ray had difficulty suppressing the urge to just blurt out the entire story. "It's not all me. I mean," he mentally cursed himself for slipping up already, and tried to cover his tracks quickly, "it _is_ me, but a lot of it is just accidents. You know, like falling down the stairs and stuff like that."

Kai didn't look convinced. "I see. You must have fallen down the stairs quite a lot in the last week or so to have so many recent cuts and bruises."

"It's not just falling down the stairs!" Ray shook his head fiercely, eager to deny anything that Kai might have been implying. "I'm really accident prone, that's all."

"You never used to be accident prone. In fact, I can't remember you ever having accidents."

"Well, you know…" Ray began timidly, twisting his sleeves together, "you've changed too. Why shouldn't I have?"

"I've changed?" Kai raised an eyebrow, and Ray nodded.

"Yeah. Before, you'd never have asked me anything like this. I'd have been lucky if you asked me anything at all, actually. If I'd walked into you in the street, you'd have ignored me. But this time, you didn't."

Now it was Kai's turn to feel a little uncomfortable. He himself didn't entirely understand why he was acting so differently; he knew as well as Ray did that when they knew each other before he'd never have bothered asking people about their lives or issues. They'd never been worth his time or attention. He guessed that four years could really change a person.

"I suppose…" he mused, more to himself than to Ray, "I am a bit different. But so far it hasn't done either of us any harm, has it?"

Ray fidgeted, pulling his feet up to sit cross-legged on the bed. "Still, it's weird. It makes me feel kind of uncomfortable."

"The way _you're_ acting is making me feel both uncomfortable and agitated. Ray, what's happened to you? And don't lie, because I'll know."

Despite Kai's words, a quiet 'nothing' was what came out of Ray's mouth.

The former Bladebreakers leader sighed, and shifted so that he was sitting upright against the headboard. "Why won't you tell me?"

"Why do you care?" Ray retorted, a sudden burst of pent up anger spilling past his carefully placed façade, revealing the tiny part of himself that always had been irritated by Kai's bluntness. "As long as we were winning tournaments, you never cared about a single thing. Not about me, not about any of us. You can't just waltz in here after four years and demand to know everything. That's not the way things work."

Silence followed this small outburst, and Ray began to feel very tiny indeed. Kai was really only trying to help and he'd just thrown it back in his face. Now he was bound to kick him out. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the worst.

Fortunately, Kai always had been pretty composed and this particular aspect of his personality didn't seem to have changed much over the years. He simply pinched the bridge of his nose, looked down at the covers of the stiff hotel bed and sighed. "Ray, why are you so hung up on what I used to be like? I'm trying to help you, but I can't do anything if you refuse to accept it." He stopped, and appeared to be awaiting a reply. When Ray didn't give him one, he continued. "If you don't want my help, then just leave. I won't stop you."

If Kai had been capable of looking defeated, he would have looked it as he stood up from the bed and wandered across the room to stare out of the window. However, because he didn't have a defeated look in him, he just appeared vacant instead.

A few moments passed before he heard the hotel room door open and click shut again.


	4. Run

**Chapter title:** Run  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Beyblade.  
**Notes: **I may have to re-watch Beyblade soon, to reacquaint myself with their characters; I'm trying not to make Ray some pitiful, OOC sack of sorrow, and I can't remember much of Kai at all other than the fact that he didn't talk much. And I really don't know where I'm going with this fic. Please help me, guys.

* * *

Ray tried to attract as little attention as possible on his way out of the hotel. He controlled his speed carefully, making sure he wasn't walking fast enough to look suspicious, and kept his gaze firmly focused on the carpet. He didn't need eye contact with anyone, didn't need attention; the way he was dressed made him look out of place as it was. He just wanted to get out and as far away as possible.

Which made no sense at all, as he was already beating himself up about leaving. He shouldn't have walked out. What was he thinking? If there was anybody in the whole world who might've been able to get him out of the mess he'd got himself into, it was Kai. And he'd just flat out rejected his help. He must've been out of his mind.

But then, he was also totally fuming. Yes, Kai had been subtly offering to help, but he really had absolutely _no_ business whatsoever butting into his life. He couldn't just waltz off to another country whenever he felt the need for an indefinite period of time without telling anybody, only to show up again years later and demand that he should be filled in on what's been going on. It wasn't fair. Kai had once been their leader, but not anymore. He had no right to get involved with Ray's life.

When Ray got out of the hotel, he started to run without hesitation. At least that was one good thing about London; there were so many people everywhere that nobody paid any mind to one person who might have been acting a little strangely. Besides, there was nowhere nearby that he could have stolen anything from. He was just in a hurry to get as far away from Kai as he could.

He raced through the streets, glad that he hadn't lost any of his old stamina or speed over the years. He had always been good at running; it was one of his strengths. When he lived in China as a child, he could remember going running all the time whenever he got bored. And there had always been places to go, new places for him to discover.

Except with London it was all the same; a street, a road, some shops, another road, another street… it was really quite tedious. He wanted something different. Even just a patch of grass would be nice; those were rare enough in the city, after all.

Before long, each street he ran through began to look more familiar than the last, and he realised with disappointment and a smidgen of something he couldn't quite place that he was heading towards the apartment he lived in. He didn't like going there, and tried to avoid it whenever he could.

It had potential to be a nice place, really; it wasn't like it was situated somewhere unpleasant. If he could ever find the motivation to do something about the messy and disorganised interior, he might be able to start describing it as 'cosy' rather than 'cramped'. But alas, the motivation simply wasn't there. If he ever did do something to make the place look better, it'd only end up being undone again, or made worse than it had been in the first place. So Ray left everything the way it was unless it was seriously in the way.

He began, as he neared the apartments, to think that maybe he should move out, before he promptly decided that that was a stupid idea. He couldn't afford to move out because he didn't have any money, and no employers would take him on board for the same reason. So he was stuck where he was for the time being.

Besides, where would he go? Even if he did have the money, he couldn't think of anywhere he could move to.

Kai's face appeared in his mind, and he mentally scowled at it. He didn't need nor want Kai's help. True, there had once been a time when he would have jumped at the opportunity to have Kai help him with something, but those days were long gone. Kai could do what he wanted as long as he didn't interfere with Ray's life.

He gradually slowed to a gentle walk, hoping he could think of somewhere to go other than his apartment before he got there. He really didn't want to go there; he knew he'd have nothing to do except maybe tidy the inevitably waiting mess, which would be pointless because it'd only untidy itself again. Maybe he could get some sleep, since he knew he'd probably need to feel well rested later. But he'd never found it very easy to sleep during the day.

By the time he reached his door, he still hadn't come up with any suggestions and so, in defeat, he tried the door handle. Locked, just as he'd left it. That was a good sign; it meant that nobody else was there, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about having an argument as soon as he walked in.

Just in case though, he checked all the rooms before he fixed himself a drink. He didn't want to end up being surprised if someone was there after all.

"Stupid Kai…" he muttered to himself as he raided his cupboards, trying to find a clean glass. "Who does he think he is? Sticking his nose in where it's not wanted. He makes me so mad sometimes."

Then he laughed and shook his head as he filled his glass with tap water. He was still thinking as if Kai had never left, and doing that wouldn't help anything because, he reminded himself, Kai seemed to be different now. He couldn't let his old opinions of him keep slipping into his mind.

But it was difficult. Ray sighed, and took a sip of the water. He'd loved Kai before. Really, _properly_ loved him, with everything he had, and it had broken his heart when he'd left without a word of explanation. He had found himself questioning everything he'd believed in, and was swallowed whole by the regret he felt at having never been strong enough to tell Kai how he felt.

He couldn't allow himself to fall into the same predicament again.

He _wouldn't_ allow it.


End file.
